Nestlé Hungária will develop its Purina pet food factory in Bük (western Hungary) at a cost of HUF 55 billion (EUR 141 million), which will create 130 new jobs, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in Budapest.
The minister said the Swiss-based food company will build a new production unit and construct two new automated production lines at its site in Bük, where
it will produce 500,000 tons of pet food a year from 2025, with 85 percent of these products exported.
The HUF 55 billion investment is expected to create 130 new jobs. Although the company will not receive government financial support, the state will provide the necessary infrastructure improvements, such as the modernization of road and water networks.
The project is an important part of Nestlé Hungária’s total five-year development period from 2020 to 2025, which will see investments worth a total of HUF 300 billion (EUR 771 million), which will create around 600 new jobs , the politician insisted.
Péter Szijjártó said that in today’s uncertain times, reliable partnerships are becoming increasingly important, and this is how the cooperation between Hungary and Nestlé can be described,
as the company has made a significant contribution to Hungary’s economic development over the past three decades.
He said the Swiss company, which has 344 factories in 77 countries around the world, also ensures that its employees are trained in the latest technologies, and its training program for this purpose is supported by the government with HUF 193 million (EUR). 495,929).
The minister emphasized that the food industry is one of the most modern sectors, as competitiveness requires continuous innovation in the face of increasingly stringent requirements on health, quality and food safety. Accordingly, the company contributed not only to the quantitative growth of the Hungarian economy, but also to its qualitative development, as it always brought innovative investments and constantly modernized its production.
He taught that too
the factory in Bük buys more than half of the raw materials it uses from domestic suppliers, so Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises also benefit greatly.
Nestlé Purina Factory in Bük. Image via Facebook/Nestlé
Péter Szijjártó emphasized that the investment will further strengthen the domestic food industry, which has not only been able to maintain its operations despite the crisis, but also continues to set new records.
He added that this is proven by the fact that the production value of the sector is HUF 3,800 billion (EUR 9.7 billion) in 2020, compared to HUF 6,500 billion (EUR 16.7 billion) last year. He pointed out that in the last ten years, the sector has seen 72 major investments worth HUF 1,000 billion (EUR 2.5 billion).
Finally, he touched on Hungarian-Swiss economic relations, pointing out that 900 Swiss companies employ more than 30,000 people in Hungary. “And bilateral relations have always been based on mutual respect, and there is no open issue of dispute in our relations,” he highlighted.
The Managing Director of Nestlé Hungária also spoke at the press conference. Péter Noszek underlined that this is the largest investment in the food industry in Hungary, which will double the plant’s production capacity from about 200,000 tons in 2019 to 500,000 tons.
Through MTI; Featured image via Facebook/Nestlé
